First-time partners win ‘Castin’ for Cash’

The last team to leave the dock Saturday morning wound up taking first place in the fourth-annual “Castin’ For Cash” tournament at Lake Despair.
First-time partners Greg Swire (Devlin) and Don Copenace (Nestor Falls) came in Saturday with a whopping weight of 14.08 pounds for their five bass, then added 12.75 pounds Sunday to claim the $5,000 prize and a spot in next year’s Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship.
Swire, who guides for derby organizers Bill and Nellie Godin at Lake Despair Lodge, has been competing in the tournament since its birth in 2001.
Coming in second with a two-day total of 25.78 pounds were Fort Frances anglers Paul Jewiss and Mike Graham, also first-time partners. They took home $2,500.
Third place went to Ralph Galusha, who also guides for Lake Despair Lodge, and Pat Steele, both from Devlin. Their two-day total of 24.8 pounds earned them $1,500.
Emo area resident Wayne Howard and Jason “Chute” Cain (Fort Frances) won $600 for their fourth-place finish with 23.96 pounds.
Finishing fifth through seventh, which earned $400 each, were Mel Giesbrecht and Chris Bell of Sioux Narrows (23.30 pounds), Jason Caul of Devlin and Dallas Mosbeck of Emo (22.06), and Dave Williams and Cuffy Kehle of Atikokan (21.36).
The latter duo, fishing the tournament for the first time, also won the Big Fish award for day one with a 3.64-pound bass.
Rounding out the top 10 were Devlin’s Grant Swire, who also guides on Lake Despair, and Rod Woodgate (21.14 pounds), Mike Baranowski of Nestor Falls and Davis Viehbeck of Thunder Bay (20.54), and Devlin’s Glen and Dennis “Radar” Smith (20.34), all of whom also pocketed $400.
Baranowski and Viehbeck also took home the Big Fish award for day two for their 3.42-pounder.
Mercury and Triton also sponsored awards—to the tune of $500 each—to go to the team that caught the biggest fish each day. The catch was that the winner had to have a Mercury motor to win on Saturday and a Triton for Sunday.
Saturday’s Mercury Big Fish award went to the tournament champs (Swire and Copenace), who had the second biggest fish of the day at 3.44 pounds.
Randy Kirk and Dave Evans, who finished in 11th place overall, won the Triton Big Fish award for Sunday with their 2.82-pound bass.
Doug and Bill Witherspoon won the Hidden Weight prize for being closest to 9.11 pounds without going over, taking home a stainless steel cooler (donated by Dev-Lynne’s) and camp cooking gear donated by Lake Despair Lodge.
The award for top male/female team went to husband-and-wife Frank and Cheryl Curtis. The prize, donated by Universal Enterprise, was a large iron-worked bass sign that read “Lake Despair Lodge.”
Most improved was the team of Robin Anderson and Jeff Kreger, who were skunked on day one but brought in 12.41 pounds for day two, earning them two 20-pound propane tanks donated by Superior propane.
And the prize for lowest weight went to the mother-son team of Sherri and Nicholas Potter, who caught one fish for the weekend, giving them a total of 1.78 pounds overall.
The award—a St. Croix fishing rod donated by Richard’s Rod and Reel—went to 10-year-old Nicholas, the youngest angler in the tournament.
(Fort Frances Daily Bulletin)